Daily Current Affairs - 05-02-2021

The Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, recently announced that the central bank will set up a 24*7 helpline platform in order to strengthen the digital payment services in India. This announcement was made through the Statement on Development and Regulatory policy.

Highlights

Significance of the helpline

The helpline will help in building the trust and confidence among the users.  It will also help in reducing the expenditure on both financial and human resources that are incurred while addressing the queries and grievances.

What was the need?

The digital payment in India is growing rapidly. A report states that, the Indian digital payment industry will reach to $1 trillion by 2023. The digital payment mode is further found the boost amid the covid-19 pandemic. But with the increasing trend of digital transaction, India is getting vulnerable to transaction fraud, cyberattacks etc. Thus, there is a need of such helpline to make the digital transaction environment secure for the users.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently decided to set up an expert committee on Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs).

Highlights

Background

What are Co-operative Banks?

Co-operative Banks were established on the line of the co-operative credit societies. In such banks, community group provide loans to each other. These banks are different than the commercial banks. The Co-operative Banks further classified into Urban and Rural co-operative banks on the basis of the region in which they are operating.

What are Commercial Banks?

The financial institution which accepts deposits from the general public and give loans to them with the objective of earning profit are called as the commercial banks.

How UCBs and Commercial Banks are different?

The UCBs are partly regulated by the reserve bank of India unlike the commercial banks. The banking operations of the UCBs are though regulated by the RBI to keep a check on their capital adequacy, risk control and the lending norms. But the management & dispute resolution mechanism is regulated by the Registrar of Co-operative Societies. The registrar can regulate it either under the State or Central government. Further, in the commercial bank the shareholders and its borrowers can be clearly differentiated as opposed to the cases of UCBs.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the central bank recently held its meeting on February 3 to February 5, 2021 to discuss the current macroeconomic financial developments in India.

Key Decisions by the committee

Highlights

Is economy recovering?

The Governor of the reserve Bank of India noted that there are signs of recovery. These signs have strengthened since the last meeting of the MPC. He highlighted,

In the line, COVID-19 vaccination drive will further boost the restoration of the other contact intensive sectors which in turn will help in reviving the economy.

The central government has recently given the approval for 26 more green zone site for drones.

Highlights

What is NPNT?

NPNT is an automated green signal. Without this green signal, drones are not authorised to fly. To handle such automatic flight authorisation, the Digital Sky is currently being developed.

What are those Green Zones?

In the Green Zones for which nod was given,

How the permission to fly can be obtained?

RPAS operators or remote pilots will require to file a flight plan in order to get the flying permission. To flying in the ‘green-zones’, intimation of the time and location of the flights will be required through the portal or the app. To fly in the yellow zone, permissions will be required but, no flights will be allowed to fly in  the ‘red zones’

What are Drones?

Drones are also called as the Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems. These are a technology platform having a wide-ranging application. India had announced the release of its Civil Aviation Regulations in order to provide safe flying environment to the RPAS in August 2018.

Significance

Drones can be proved beneficial for farmers and infrastructure entities such as roads, railways, ports, factories and mines. It will also benefit the sectors such as photography, insurance and entertainment.

The Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal launched the ‘Switch Delhi’ campaign on February 4, 2021.

Highlights

About the campaign

Electric Vehicle Policy of Delhi

Electric vehicles in Delhi

Ever since the electric vehicle policy was launched, over 6,000 electric vehicles have been sold out.

The Military regime in Myanmar has announced the establishment of a new State Administrative Council.

About State Administrative Council

Highlights

What UN has said?

Military Rule in Myanmar

The military of Myanmar took the control of the country and a one-year state of emergency was announced on February 1 2021. The State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and other government leaders were also detained. This happened in the backdrop of victory of Suu Kyi’s party in election that was held in November 2020. The military took over the country because it regarded the victory a result of frauds.  Following that, the Myanmar Civil Disobedience Movement has been started in opposition to the military’s takeover.

Background

The state emergency was announced because of government was failed in tackling the situation. Despite that, the Suu Kyi’s party won the election. Thus, the military took over in the country as per the Article 417 of the Myanmar’s constitution that gives power to the military to take over in times of emergency. The military had framed the constitution of Myanmar in the year 2008. During that time, thus the military retains power under the charter at the expense of democratic, civilian rule.

The Ministry of AYUSH (MoA) has formulated the Common Yoga Protocol (CYP) training programme recently.

Highlights

About Common Yoga Protocol

Objective of Common Yoga Protocol

The Common Yoga Protocol is organised with the objective of:

  1. Spreading knowledge and skill of Yoga among masses.
  2. Increasing mass awareness regarding health benefits of Yoga.
  3. Introducing basic well-being principles and practices to the common people.
  4. Promoting positive health through Yoga.
  5. Propagating Yoga for preventive practices for holistic health.

International Yoga Day

The day is observed on June 21 every year since 2015 after its inception in the UN General Assembly in year 2014.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) and Zomato have signed a MoU under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme.

Key Facts

What is the plan?

Background

On October 5, 2020 the MoHUA also signed a MoU with the Swiggy to empower Street Food Vendors with digital technology. It was also signed with the objective of facilitating the greater income earning opportunities to the street-vendors through these food-tech platforms.

PMSVANidhi se Samriddhi Application

The ministry also launched the Mobile Application called “PMSVANidhi se Samriddhi”. The application will do the Socio-economic profiling of PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families and help them to link with the Central Government Schemes. The application will assist city officials to collect the door-to-door data.

PM SVANidhi Scheme

This scheme was launched on June 01, 2020. It was launched in order to provide the affordable working capital loan to street vendors. The scheme was launched to help vendors to resume their livelihoods that was affected due to Covid-19 lockdown. It seeks to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors. The scheme provides the vendors a collateral free loan of up to Rs. 10,000, of one year.

The redevelopment work of the central vista avenue has started with the Bhoomi Pujan ceremony. Central Vista Avenue is the area surrounding Rajpath. The Bhoomi Pujan was performed by the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri.

Central Vista Avenue

Background

The area was retained by the Government of India after independence. Because of safety concerns proposals for new structures started coming to forth after independence. In the line, the landscape of the Central Vista Avenue was altered after Independence. In 1980s, new rows of trees were also added. Further, in order to improve the north-south connectivity a new road Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Marg was constructed.

Central Vista Redevelopment Project

The project is the ongoing redevelopment plan to revamp the Central Vista which is the central administrative area of India located near Raisina hill in New Delhi. The area comprises of the government and parliamentary offices of India. It is called as the “Power Corridor” of India. The project has been started with the objective of improving the infrastructure for the Government of India. The redevelopment plan also comprises of the retrofitting and refurbishing some of the heritage buildings to make them functional and safe for future. It will convert North and South Blocks to publicly accessible museums. A common Central Secretariat will be created to house all ministries. Apart from that, a new Parliament building will also be constructed and its seating capacity will be increased.

History of the Central Vista

The area was designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker at the time of British colonial rule.  Its foundation stone was put in the year 1921. In the year 1927 the building was inaugurated by the viceroy Lord Irwin. In the year 1947, it became the seat of new government of India.

Andhra Pradesh has become the second State to implement the power sector reforms that was put forward by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.

Highlights

About Power Sector Reforms

Guidelines to raise finance

The Department of Expenditure has made guidelines for the States who are undertaking reforms in power sector. As per the guidelines, the states can raise additional financial resources of up to 0.25 percent of the GSDP.

Background

The government of India has enhanced the borrowing limit of the States by 2 percent of the GSDP in the backdrop of the challenges faced by the states amid the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. Further, the states were allowed to raise additional fund amounting to 0.25% of GSDP. For that purpose, four citizen centric areas were identified for reforms namely, Ease of doing business reform, Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System, (Urban Local body or utility reforms and Power Sector reforms.

The 1st meeting of the Joint Working Group between India and Kingdom of Bahrain in the field of Renewable Energy held virtually on February 4, 2021.

Highlights

Agenda of the meeting

Background

In the month of July, 2018, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between India and Bahrain. The MoU was signed in order to promote the bilateral cooperation in Renewable Energy.

India – Bahrain Relation

Both the countries share an excellent bilateral relation. The relation is characterized by the cordial political, economic and cultural aspects. The bilateral Trade and commercial exchanges between both the countries dates back to 5,000 years ago. The origin of the trade relation can be traced back to period of Dilmun Civilization in Bahrain to the Indus valley civilization era in India. Bahrain is home to around 350,000 Indian nationals that account for one third of the total population in Bahrain. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bahrain in August 2019. This was the first ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Bahrain. Both the countries signed the 2 MOUs in the fields of Space, International Solar Alliance and the RuPay Card.

Pakistan successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile called Ghaznavi. The missile was test fired on February 3, 2021.

Highlights

About Ghaznavi Missile

National Defence Complex (NDC)

It is also known as the National Development Complex. NDC is a Pakistani state-owned defence and aerospace contractor. The complex is based in Fateh Jang, Rawalpindi in Pakistan. It was Founded in the year 1990.

Recently, the launch vehicle Stardust 1.0 was launched from a former military base in US called Loring Commerce Centre.

Significance of the Launch

About Stardust 1.0

  1. A metal alloy which is designed to lessen vibrations,
  2. A CubeSat prototype which was built by high school students, and
  3. A CubeSat that was procured from software company Rocket Insights.

BluShift Company

Biofuel

Fuel produced through the contemporary processes from biomass which can directly be converted into liquid fuels.  It is not produced by the usual slow geological processes of formation of fossil fuels like oil.

Maine State

The state is situated in the New England region of North-eastern United States (US) having its capital city Augusta. It is bordered by New Hampshire in the west, Atlantic Ocean in the southeast and Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec respectively in the northeast and northwest. The state is the 12th-smallest by area. The most populous city of the state is Portland.